Speed King
Copyright/Publisher: Digital Intergration, Release Year: 1984,
Genre: Motorcycle Sports, Number Of Players: 1 or 2

Speed King is a motorbike racing game and is in fact a conversion of the Spectrum game Full Throttle. The game is played in the classic Pole Position view-from-the-back style with similar type of graphics.

There are ten famous international tracks from which to choose and every one has its won record table. When you choose a track you can, if you wish, have a high speed preview to see what sort of hazards it suffers and give you a chance to get to know the track.

If you're still unsure about the track then you can try the practice option - this lets you zoom around a bikerless track to get used to the 'feel' of the bike and track. Once you're happy that you want to tackle that track and start the race properly just select the difficulty level and you're ready to go.

You start the race behind 19 other riders and you have to bettle your way to the front and stay there. If you touch one of the riders then you spin off the track and lose precious time. You also crash off the track if you try to take corners at high speeds, so driving at realistic speeds is a far better policy than belting around like a loony.

The bike is a powerful one with six gears, good acceleration and handling. Using the gears is pretty easy - just pull the joystick down to shift up a gear of vice-versa.

The game is very challenging and the other riders are no fools and all ride very well. On-screen information includes speed, gear, current position in race, lap time, and current record time. Speed King offers a great challenge, with brilliant bike feel, fast graphics and great sound and is surely amongst the best racegames for the 64.


INTRO SCREEN

GRAPHICS 89%
SOUND 88%
FEEL 94%
LASTABILITY 92%
OVERALL 91%